Reports of Planet Earth's Death Have Been Greatly ... Underestimated

Another day, another petrifying New York Times exploration of how we're turning our planet into an overflowing toilet bowl. This time it's a deep dive on the West Antarctic ice sheet, a holdover from the last ice age that's bigger than Mexico and may be melting way more quickly than previously thought. If it disintegrates completely, it could dump enough water into the world's oceans to raise sea levels by 12 feet, a disastrous scenario that could see many of the world's greatest cities—New York, London, Sydney, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Venice—go Full Atlantis.

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At the very least, the accelerated rate could raise the ceiling for sea level rise by 2100 from scientists' previous estimate of three feet to five or six. By the middle of the next century, the oceans could rise by as much as a foot per decade. If this is indeed accurate—and the research team, mostly based at Penn State University, is quick to say it's a worst-case and non-definite scenario—then any children born today better not invest in any beachfront property.

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But considering scientists file even a three-foot rise under the heading "really bad," it looks like the scale we're working on starts there and ends at "catastrophic, existential threat." We should probably be working to address this, and the international community started to do so with the Paris agreement in November. But a big part of that is down to United States involvement and leadership, something that's sort of on the table this November. So where do each of the remaining presidential candidates—who will be tasked with enforcing existing regulations on power plants and other polluters, and with trying to lower American emissions further—stand on this issue?

Bernie Sanders

Climate change is the single greatest threat facing our planet. The debate is over, and the scientific jury is in: global climate change is real, it is caused mainly by emissions released from burning fossil fuels and it poses a catastrophic threat to the long-term longevity of our planet. If we do nothing, the planet will heat up five to ten degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century. That would cause enough sea level rise from melting glaciers to put cities like New York and Miami underwater—along with more frequent asthma attacks, higher food prices, insufficient drinking water and more infectious diseases.But this isn't just a problem for the future—the impacts of climate change are apparent here and now.

John Kasich

In the last Republican debate:

"I do believe we contribute to climate change, but I don't think it has to be a -- you know, either you're for some environmental stringent rules or -- you know, you're not going to have any jobs. The fact is, you can have both," he said. "In our state, we've reduced emissions by 30 percent. But let me tell you also what we're trying to do. We want all the sources of energy. We want to dig coal, but we want to clean it when we burn it. We believe in natural gas. We believe in nuclear power."

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Hillary Clinton

Climate change is an urgent threat and a defining challenge of our time...2015 was the warmest year on record—and 15 of the 16 hottest years on record have come just since 2001...While climate deniers continue to ignore settled science because it does not suit their political agenda, and climate defeatists doubt America's ability to meet this challenge, Hillary knows that America is fully up to the task. Already, U.S. carbon pollution has been cut to its lowest level since 1995. Wind power has expanded three fold and solar power 30-fold since 2008. But that's not enough to tackle the climate challenge, meet America's carbon pollution reduction goals, or to compete for the $13.5 trillion of global clean energy investment unlocked by the historic international climate change agreement reached in Paris. We can and must go further.

Ted Cruz

The Texas senator has repeatedly denied the existence of climate change altogether. At an event sponsored by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch last summer, Cruz said it "ain't happening."

"If you look to the satellite data in the last 18 years there has been zero recorded warming," he said. "Now the global warming alarmists, that's a problem for their theories. Their computer models show massive warming the satellite says it ain't happening. We've discovered that NOAA, the federal government agencies are cooking the books."

Donald Trump

The GOP front-runner has repeatedly spoken critically of climate change science, using words like "hoax," "con job," "nonexistent," and "bulls***" to refer to climate change.

"I think that climate change is just a very, very expensive form of tax. A lot of people are making a lot of money. I know much about climate change," Trump said in a January interview on Fox News. "I've received many environmental awards. And I often joke that this is done for the benefit of China—obviously I joke—but this done for the benefit of China."

If you're keeping score at home, two of the three Republicans remaining say none of it's real and we should just keep doing what we're doing. Who are you going with?